Fabrication of boxsprings and other similar structures in which a wire cross-grid structural frame is secured to a series of single cone (conical) coils is costly and time consuming. The high incidence of hand labor involved will be readily apparent upon considering the necessity for properly and uniformly spacing the elements to achieve proper and consistent resilience in the completed structure. It is necessary to space the elements forming the boxspring uniformly and the elements must be assembled utilizing suitable clamping members that securely fasten the individual coils to the grid frame without slippage or slack which would promote noisy vibrations upon flexure when the boxspring is subjected to repeated loading cycles during the life of the boxspring.
For the most part, many of the operations in assembling a boxspring necessitate hand labor and the utilization of small hand tools with the necessary dexterity which can only be achieved through long experience in the same repetitive operations. Some automatic tools are available for some procedures but they have not met with any degree of acceptance in the industry. Uniformly secure clamping is essential for any automatic tool which, of necessity, in the fabrication of a boxspring, must be durable and highly productive with minimum maintenance or repair since the tools will usually be operated by unskilled or semi-skilled workers.
The clinch tool of this invention is preferably air-powered and is designed to align the wire cross-grid structural framework relative to each single cone (conical) coil which is to be affixed with a predetermined spacing between the coil and the cross-grid to form a chordal segment into which predetermined spacing a clinch member will be seated and supported on the cross-grid upon insertion into the chordal segmental spacing preliminary to bending the seated clinch member about the coil.
The supply of clinch members from a magazine will enable the clinch tool to insert a single clinch member in a directed path of travel by guiding it and retaining it until seated in a final position before the clinch member is clinched in a final condition sequentially to lock the coil to a wire cross-grid structural frame.
The clinch tool and method may be advantageously utilized with the bed spring unit disclosed in pending U.S. application Ser. No. 771,038 filed on Feb. 22, 1977 of Edwin G. Krakauer, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,212.